Even Worth Knows Gingers Are Adorable
by Stitchpunk
Summary: "The first time Worth met Hanna was in the autumn. And he was holding his own guts in with his hand. Worth sighed." A possible way for Hanna and Worth to have become friends.


The first time Worth met Hanna was in the autumn.

He heard a knock on his door and screamed his customary "Come the fuck in already!" like he did every time some poor fuck didn't have the guts to walk into a goddamn office just because it didn't have ten-thousand dollar sliding glass doors on it. Nothing. There was another knock. He huffed around his cig and kicked his feet off the table, smacking them hard onto the floor, and stood up. Stomping over to the door, he flung it open by the knob and...stopped short.

It was a kid. A measly little prepubescent ginger. And he was holding his own guts in with his hand. Worth sighed. This had been exactly why he'd gone into his own business. The hospital he'd been training in, and every other one he'd tried, turned kids like this away every bastard day of the week if they couldn't pay. So he decided he'd do it. And he did. And he was better off than every single one of those tubby assholes in their clean white coats that their souls themselves had bought them.

"C'mon, kid," he sighed in disappointment around his cancer stick, stepping back and gesturing him inside invitingly.

"See-...thing is..." the kid mumbled with a weak and somehow wryly cheerful smile and half-shut eyes that were staring at the doctor's fur trim. "'M not..._entirely_ sure...I can-," and then he collapsed. Luckily, he'd given enough wavering warning that Worth reached out long before he'd informed him of his impending crash and easily caught him before he slumped so much as a foot backwards. Worth grunted. Even passed out, the kid had good instincts. His hand never let up on the pressure over his intestines.

He nearly overbalanced when he lifted the kid into his arms. Freak musta' weighed nine pounds sopping wet.

So he floated him back to the operating table and laid him out, letting him keep his own innards in, while he found some stitching thread and some brandy to dip the curved needle in.

The wait for him to wake up had been a very long two days. He'd kept him passed out on purpose, with a nutrition drip and some saline for sustenance, to keep him from tensing up and ripping his organs open again. It'd taken eight lucid hours to patch the pathetic lump up and he wasn't going to have his work ruined by a solid hour of screaming and whining and writhing about like a fish strung out on mescaline once he found out how bad a condition he was in.

But that hadn't happened. Not even anything like it, really. The kid hadn't panicked at all. Not even been scared.

Worth walked back into the operating room after waking up and having a nice morning smoke and a little pick-me-up, and the idiot was putting on his stupid plaid pants of all things!

"What th' FUCK d'ya think yer doing!" he growled around his filter and grabbed the kid, easily hefting him back onto the table that he'd gone so far as to pad with a few sheets and his own comforter, all folded up nice and neat. He was actually a bit proud of himself for that. Even if he did have three more blankets in about the same ratty state still back there for himself still. Nice was nice.

"Sorry-," the kid winced and squirmed into a more comfortable position. He hadn't gotten his makeshift hospital gown (a white sheet folded in half with some shoelaces sewn onto it and tied loosely over his shoulder and around his side because, really, fifty bucks for that exact same thing was going too far) off, so Worth only had to yank his already only knee-height hem back down, grab the bottoms of the pant legs to swipe them off, and ball them up to throw them at the wall where they thumped and then fell into a chair with the rest of the kid's stuff, exactly as he'd intended.

"Sit. Stay. Good boy," Worth mocked gruffly. The kid looked properly abashed and settled back obediently, folding his hands over his ribs where his giant zigzagged gash was. "Now...how the _exact _hell did you manage ta fuck yerself up s' bad, kiddo?"

"'M not a kid..." the kid frowned. Worth snorted. "I'm not! I'm sixteen!"

"Chyeah, and I'm pushin' three-hundred. Nice try," the Doc dismissed, looking out of the corner of his eye before leveling the ginger twerp with a hard stare. "Now tell me whatcha did exactly so I c'n tell you not t'do it again."

"To tell the truth..." the kid had the gall to giggle a little right there, "I'm not entirely sure. Something to do with my runes; I know that. But I can't remember the exact enchantment. It was a new one. But I don't know which." He was scratching the back of his head in embarrassed awkwardness and replaced his hand back over his other one when he finished speaking, looking up at his emergency lifeline through his eyelashes.

"D'ya at least r'member yer name?" Worth asked, refraining from lighting up as he so frustratedly wanted to because if the kid coughed it was pretty likely he'd be dead too.

"Falk." The kid cringed. "Well..._Hanna_ Falk. Cross," he finally admitted.

"Hanna, huh?" Worth said with an approving nod. "Suits ya."

"Gee, thanks," the kid smiled in false wryness, obviously glad that someone actually liked it. "You're Doc Worth, right?"

"Got it 'n one, kiddo. How'd you fin' out about me?" he asked.

"Just felt right. Saw you in a rune-induced dream once when I was psychically surveying the city. Fifth level rune. Easy-peasy as pie. ...The ninth time anyways. Wasn't sure you'd still be here to be honest," the kid, Hanna, laughed. "I guess I was pretty lucky! Didn't think to go anywhere else. Didn't really have anywhere else _to_ go."

"Yeah, well, yer gonna wish ya never came in a few weeks. Yer stayin' here till I deem ya worthy o' walkin' out again." He looked toward the kitchen, brow furrowed. "Y'think ya c'n eat yet?"

"M-maybe?" the kid smiled uncertainly. "Not sure I could take a deep breath, actually, let alone swallow. This kinda hurts." He was barely showing it. Kid must have been the most cheerful, hyperactive person on the face of the Earth when he was up and at 'em all full of health and vim and vigour if this was what he was like when he was halfway to the darkly lighted beyond.

"Yeah, I'd imagine. _Whelp_, ya c'n try in a few hours then. I'll up yer dose o' painkillers for ya. See 'f that helps," Worth offered, already turning the little release guage on the medicine to about double what it had been. With the kid up and moving about, even just to breathe deeper now that he was awake, he'd need it. _Well_...he probably needed _more_, but the supply was limited for now. He'd have to call Toucey for a delivery.

Hanna sighed and his eyelids slipped closed in bliss at the slight reduction in pain. Standing up had taken more out of him thn he'd like to admit, and his vision was still a bit blotchy from it.

"Mm...tha's good..." he whispered tiredly, lazily looking up at Worth in thanks for the heavenly relief.

"Yeah. You jus' wait there. I'ma go grab a cuppa f'r m'self, if'n ya don't mind. For some reason, I'm feelin' a bit worn out." He looked pointedly at Hanna, who was eyeing him in drugged amusement. "_Kid_." he said with a note of blame.

"'M nodda kid..." Hanna murmured with a smile and a sideways glance. "'M sisteen."

"Jus' 'cause it'd be legal ta fuck ya don' make ya 'n adult," Worth scoffed. "Ya can' even drink in fron' of a cop at _sisteen_. Not that y'are. I have doubts yer even _teen_ anything."

But Hanna was already higher than a kite at that point and had stopped listening in favour of staring at his hand. Worth chuffed with an endeared smile-because he couldn't help but find the kid a _little_ cute-and walked into the back to find himself some coffee-black and brewed about two times too long by now-satisfied that Hanna wouldn't be getting up again anytime soon.

When he finished his drink, he went back to see if Hanna was still doing well. Kid was staring at the curtains now. There was a window behind them, but nothing worth looking at, especially not that you could see in the gap between the fabric. Just boards and crates and bits of chain link fence.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Worth asked absently as he settled down on the floor, cross-legged, with some paperwork. He licked the end of his pen and began to fill it out. He may be antisocial, but, for once, he wasn't hung over, and he'd just had a smoke and some caffeine, and he hadn't had a chance to get high on anything in the past few days, having had to check on Hanna every hour to make sure he still had a pulse under those flaps of skin he now had stapled down over his torso...so he was willing to keep the kid entertained.

"The curtains are waving at me..." Hanna said softly as he gazed upon the dingy cloths. Worth had become so distracted by his inconsequential thoughts that he almost missed it.

"They are, are they..." he hummed. "You should wave back."

To his content amusement, Hanna did, mouthing the word 'Hi' as well as he just barely lifted his fingers and rocked the heel of his palm over his severely bruised stomach, unable to feel the pain he undoubtedly caused by the action. Worth smiled and chuffed again, going back to his forms for Toucey so he could pick him up some more Roxanol (and everything else he'd need to counteract the side effects of the Roxanol) for the kid.

"Hey, kiddo," he called up a few minutes later. No reaction. "D'ya need ta use the bathroom yet?"

That drew a smile. "Do I get t'use a bedpan?"

"'_Get to_'? ...No. Y'can stan' up t'getcher pants on, y'can take a shit by yerself," he deadpanned. Hanna's goofy smile fell a little, but he got it back quickly and started to push himself up. "Oh, no, no, no. I'll carry ya. You jus' getta do all th' work yerself," he grunted as he pushed himself up off the floor using his knee for support.

He scooped the tiny lightweight up after unhooking him from everything, but leaving his various plastic entry points open, and carried him into the back rooms where his grungy bathroom with a bad case of surface-itis was, things piled up in every possible spot they could be. Sitting the kid down on the toilet, he arranged his sheet for him and walked out, standing in the hall and leaning against the wall to the side of the doorframe, getting lost in his thoughts again.

He heard the kid trying to stand up and called out, "Y'all cleaned up?"

"Yeah..." Hanna said quietly back. Worth pushed off the wall with his back and walked back in, lifting the kid up like a bride in a really cheap dress. "Wait..." the kid requested. He paused and Hanna reached out to the faucet, turning the hot tap on only and running his hands under it.

"You done?" the doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Hanna nodded sleepily, laying his head against Worth's shoulder in exhaustion. He hadn't done anything but sit up, but he was as tired as he'd ever been.

The doctor carried him back out and settled him in under the blanket that had fallen to the floor, arranging the ones under him a little since Hanna's limbs dragging over them had put some wrinkles in uncomfortable places, though the kid never complained once.

"Ya think ya c'n hold some food down yet?" he offered again. Hanna nodded, barely able to keep his eyes open. The pain was quickly returning. He looked over at the little group of IVs and Worth started connecting him back up.

"Maybe some water," Hanna accepted a bit doubtfully.

"How 'bout some juice," Worth encouraged. Hanna paused but nodded.

"What kind?" he asked, waking up a little as the drugs hit him and the hurt faded some. Worth was already headed out the door.

"Apple'll do ya?" he returned, looking back in time to catch Hanna's nod.

He got back and held the proffered mug next to Hanna's face, putting the end of the bendy straw in his mouth for him.

"I like hot pink," Hanna noted around the end of the neon apparatus before sucking on it, swallowing small sips very gingerly. The mug had only been a quarter full and it still took him a few minutes to get through it.

"Clashes w' yer hair," Worth mumbled as he took the cup away and set it on an off-grey filing cabinet, the straw rolling around against the side for a few seconds.

"I don' care 'bout stuff like that," Hanna stated proudly, if a bit quiet.

"Yea, I c'n tell," Worth scoffed, flipping his hand at the pile of mismatched clothes in the chair as he sat on the floor again in the same fashion as before.

"Hey. Least I don't wear fringe," Hanna smirked. _Well, well_, Worth thought idly with a smile on his face, _th' kid 'as a little bite to 'im yet_.

"All th' cool kids wear fringe," Worth shot back lightheartedly. "Only nerds wear plaid. _Yellow_ plaid, at that."

"Nah...girls wear fringe..." Hanna said, tiring again rapidly.

"Yeah, girls got th' right ideas 'bout a lot o' things," Worth acquiesced as the kid's eyes slipped closed. He picked up his papers off the dusty floor, flicked them a few times to get the grey off, and got up to go call Toucey.

Hanna woke to muffled voices that were saying his name. He pried his eyelids up and caught Doc Worth sitting behind a desk in the next room with a cigarette in his mouth and leaning his arms on the wooden surface. He was talking to a man sitting next to some paper catchers he'd pushed over, judging by the displaced items to the other side of them, who had his back and black hair facing the doorway. They were talking about him, as he could tell from Worth's gestures toward him every few seconds. The only word he'd been able to catch was his own name though.

Finally Worth looked over and caught his eye. He hadn't particularly minded being apart from the conversation, but he didn't really enjoy not being able to hear much of it. He didn't like silence. He liked talking and voices and general reminders that he wasn't alone, even if it was just a radio that he could use to fool his loneliness with.

The two stood and walked in, the black-haired man smoothing down his coat when he stood up and turned, and Doc not bothering.

"Hey, there, kiddo. You feeling okay?" the stranger asked casually. Hanna frowned.

"I'll put up with it from him, but I'm not a kid," he insisted. That drew a bark of laughter.

"All right. Hanna, then?" the man offered. He held his hand out next to the kid's on the bed and grasped it for a moment, not really shaking, and let go. "I'm Lamont. Lamont Toucey, but I'll be regular old Lamont to you."

"Hi, Lamont," Hanna replied. He then looked down curiously when he saw the man was holding something. The paper bag was held up a bit higher for him.

"Brought you some drugs so you don't bust a gut. You've done that already. Figured you didn't need to again," Lamont smiled. Hanna returned it.

"Thank you very much, Mr Toucey," he said.

"Ah! See, Worth? Kid knows respect! You should get somma that!" the man teased, elbowing his blonde friend in the ribs. Worth elbowed his arm right back, drawing a sharp grunt.

"I got plen'y o' _respect_. An' I give it ta the right people," he shot back around his cig before remembering himself and who he was with. He got his pack out and stubbed the tip of the stick a few times on the tagboard before returning the leftover roll to the foil.

"Good doctor," Toucey gratified a bit condescendingly, but meaning the compliment.

"Tha's righ'," Worth affirmed distractedly as he went about checking Hanna's levels. He shoved a thermometer in the redhead's mouth after dipping it in a bottle of vodka and wagging the mercury down. "Don' talk," he ordered as he grabbed the boy's small wrist and found his pulse, looking at his watch as he counted for one full minute. Ordinarily he'd do thirty seconds and double the count, but he wanted to be more exact for this extensive of an injury. He did blood pressure and pupil reaction and extremity-pinching-the whole nine yards-and then checked the mercury level. "Eh," he shrugged lopsidedly. "Good 'nough. Y'can 'ave more drugs though."

Hanna grinned at him and let his head fall back down on the pillow, having been watching the man the whole time in absorbed interest. "Glad to hear that."

"Ya happen to 'ave some antibiotics in that thar bag o' yers, Toucey?" Worth asked as he got out some new needles, needing to poke new holes in Hanna so his veins wouldn't collapse from too much abuse.

"Just so happens that I do," Lamont nodded, looking through the bag and nodding to himself when he found them.

"I'munna need a few more o' those over the next while," the doctor said as the man walked out with a nod.

Worth smoothly slid the needle into what had to be a wrist six inches around, six and a quarter _maybe_. He slid the plastic tube into the vein without missing a beat and hooked the IV in like a pro. Hanna was quite impressed. It wasn't that he hadn't expected him to be great, but that anyone could be _that_ great was a bit of a nice surprise. Even he, who did all his runes by marker, didn't have that steady of a hand, or movements nearly that precise. He finished off the other IVs and untied the laces on Hanna's sheet, uncovering him down just past the tops of his hips so he could inspect the bandages, the only really stark white things in the room.

Peeling them back, he made no noise or expressions as he poked and prodded every few inches along the giant gashes, pushing the staples to make sure they were stuck in properly.

"Mm-huh," he nodded. "Looks good ta me."

"Good. It looked good to me too, but I'm not a doctor, so probably you would know better than me how good it actually was. Why were you poking it?" Hanna asked with a bright smile and a burst of energy.

"T'see if anythin' came out. Hungry?" he offered again. Hanna's smile brightened yet.

"You ask that a lot. But yeah, I could eat. Whaddya have?" he enquired.

"I don' ask a lot. You jus' sleep a lot. Last thing ya put 'n yer mouth was apple juice twelve hours ago," Worth denied. "And for you, I have baby food."

"Ooh! Gerber? I love Gerber. I really like the little meat puree stick things. I eat those a lot when I can get some extra money. So I guess not a lot. But when I can," Hanna rambled until he was presented with a bottle of said sticks. "Hey! Really? This is just awesome. Really, I mean, I totally love these. I can't remember the first time I ate them. I've just always loved them, ever since I can remember." He let Worth take them out of his hand and open the bottle for him, the sound of the lid popping triggering his stomach to ready itself for food, and suddenly he was absolutely starving. "_Oh, my god, I'm hungry_..."

"Calm th' fuck down, kid. Y'd think I haven't fed ya 'n days," Worth mumbled around an unlit cigarette, holding it between his lips like a pacifier, even if he couldn't smoke it yet.

Hanna barked a laugh. "But you _hav_en't fed me in days!"

"Idiot, whaddaya think's been in all those tubes in ya? I'm feedin' ya right _now_," the doctor shot back. Ungrateful kids these days. He handed Hanna one of the meat sticks and the boy popped it instantly between his lips and chewed twice before swallowing it down, holding his hand out and flicking his fingers impatiently for another. "Hold yer horses; y'only get half right now, so make it last. Believe me when I say ya don' wanna be makin' yerself throw up right now."

Hanna nodded, the single bite already feeling heavy in his stomach. He nibbled at the next slimy stub of food slowly, and, as much as he hated to do so, had to turn down a third. "I don't think I can take another one," he said forlornly, looking longingly at the tantalizing jar that Worth was now screwing closed.

"Y'c'n 'ave it later. Give it a few hours. Ya wanna watch some TV? I gotta lil one I can wheel in here. Don' get much in th' way o' channels, butcha gotcher basic stuff," Worth offered as he got up, pausing at the door to finish.

"Yeah! Yeah, I don't ever watch anything on TV. I don't have the money. Unless I'm at the mall or something, just kinda hangin' out? Y'know? Yeah, I like to go in the electronics stores and watch the movies on the big screens with the surround sound," Hanna got out quickly before the man left. The television was pushed in and the cord plugged and Hanna turned the power-slash-volume dial to on. "I'm saving up for a computer, though. Yeah, I'm gonna get one soon. It's kinda hard to live without one in my line of work. Paranormal investigation does _not_ conform to library hours."

"So yer a PI, huh? You been huntin' ghosts?" Worth asked, very aware of what existed out there.

"Yeah, I've got most of the level five runes down, and all the easier ones. I don't wanna seem stuck-up, but I'm pretty good for someone my age! I've only been studying it for_ev_er, though, so it's about time. This thing here? I'm pretty sure I accidentally tried a level fifteen. I _thought_ it seemed funny. A little. Not ha-ha funny, but kinda odd? Yeah. Can't remember for the life of me what it was for though. I was just practicing-I know that at least. So it's not like I ruined anything important. Heh. Just me!" the kid sounded happy enough, but Worth didn't like the words at the end, and especially not the unchanged tone. He hadn't been being sarcastic.

"Yeah, well, I'd prefer it if ya din't do whatever 't was again. I don' like seein' kids come through here. Leave killin' yerself up to the big boys." There was something in his tone that made Hanna pause. He'd sounded like he actually cared about him. But he had no idea who he was. Either one of them. The boy looked at him for a long while and Worth stared back for a bit of it, before grunting gruffly and walking out to his desk, shuffling papers and getting a bottle of something that stung Hanna's nose to smell to sip on as he lit his half-cig. The redhead watched him for a few more moments before reaching out absently to the knobs on the TV and turning them idly, looking toward the screen after a second to see what he was doing.

Some game show was on that even he had seen a few times where you spun a big wheel and said letters for money if you spelled a word right, like in hangman when he was little in school. He settled back against his three pillows and watched with more of his interest turned inward on his thoughts than outward on the screen with flashing lights.

Hanna stayed out the rest of the month after Worth found out he was living in a nasty two-bit hotel with not even half a star a few blocks away from his office, in a yet more dangerous part of town. Hanna said he was paying only fifteen dollars a night though, so he couldn't turn it down. Nonetheless, Worth insisted even after he'd been able to walk with very little pain for two weeks, that he wasn't ready to go.

"Listen, kid, yeh'd be able to leave if you were goin' somewhere nicer," Worth finally admitted. "But if there's a risk of infection like that, it jus' ain' safe."

"But I can't _get_ anywhere better! It's not like I'm exactly rollin' in the dough. No one wants to hire me, even when I _do_ prove to them I'm sixteen," Hanna complained. "It's not right for me to stay here and do nothing all day."

"Ya don't do nuthin' all day. Ya clean up the place. Ya take over for me gettin' stuff done when I'm _'incapacitated'_ an' Toucey shows up. Ya take care o' the minier stuff people come in with while I deal with their idiot counterparts," Worth insisted. "Yer stayin' at least another month. I'll find ya a better place to stay by then."

"You really don't have to-"

"Face it, kid. I like ya. I don't know _why_ I like ya, but I do. Yer cute. An' it's not offen I care enough ta be nice to anyone. If ya ain't noticed, even Lamont only shows up when he has some business with me. But yer diff'rent. For _some_ stupid reason," the doctor explained roughly. That shut Hanna up for a moment, which was nearly an impossible thing to do.

"You really want me to hang around here?" he asked finally with a simper.

"YES. GET IT THROUGH YER THICK SKULL ALREADY," Worth ground out, almost losing his cigarette while trying to stay as calm as possible. But the kid was too much sometimes.

"Awww..." Hanna cooed. "Ya _like_ me," he teased in Worth's own low-class accent. The blonde glared at him and his grin turned apologetic. "Thanks." It was honest, even if he tried not to show it too much.

"Yer welc'me," Worth muttered around his cig. "Now clean the place up again. I gotta date with a bottle o' Finnish vodka that's long overdue."

"Y'know..." Hanna piped up smugly as he turned with his bottle in hand. "I can show you some runes that'll getcha pretty fucked up if you want."

Worth turned slowly on his heel and grinned evilly. "Ya can now, can ya..."

"I can. Consider it payment," the redhead said with a look that mirrored Worth's own, which impressed the blonde a bit. Maybe the kid _was_ older than he seemed. "But don't try them on yourself until you can copy them perfectly on paper first. I made that mistake and-believe _me_-it was...well, it was a huge mistake."

"Oh, yeah? What 'appened?" Curious. Not apprehensive. Almost a challenge toward the runes.

"No high. Three-day hangover. And when I say hangover, I mean the after-effects lasted two more weeks." Hanna exhaled through a circle mouth and his eyes widened as he looked down, remembering. A blush came across his cheeks. "I was young and stupid."

"Y' c'n say _that_ again," Worth muttered. "Copy 'em down fer me. I'll be in the back. If Toucey shows up, there's some cash unner the inbox for 'im."

"Right," Hanna smiled. He watched Worth's backside leave before turning to the corner and grabbing up the broom. He sighed contentedly. He was home. For now, at least.


End file.
